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Full Download Basic Biomechanics 7th Edition Hall Test Bank
Full Download Basic Biomechanics 7th Edition Hall Test Bank
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Chapter 01
What is Biomechanics?
2. Which of the following terms is applied to the study of systems in a constant state of
motion?
A. statics
B. dynamics
C. anthropometrics
D. plyometrics
3. What term is given to considerations such as the size, shape, and weight of body
segments?
A. cybernetic
B. anthropometric
C. kinematic
D. kinetic
4. Which of the following would not be measured in a kinematic analysis of a tennis serve?
A. angular velocity
B. linear velocity
C. muscular force
D. angular acceleration
12. Which of the following questions about the long jump should be answered quantitatively?
A. What is the horizontal velocity at take-off?
B. What is the angle at take-off?
C. both A and B
D. neither A nor B
With a view to meet the wishes of all parties, and arrive at some
definite and permanent adjustment of the slavery question, Mr. Clay
early in the session introduced compromise resolutions which were
practically a tacking together of the several bills then on the calendar,
providing for the admission of California—the territorial government
for Utah and New Mexico—the settlement of the Texas boundary—
slavery in the District of Columbia—and for a fugitive slave law. It
was seriously and earnestly opposed by many, as being a concession
to the spirit of disunion—a capitulation under threat of secession;
and as likely to become the source of more contentions than it
proposed to quiet.
The resolutions were referred to a special committee, who
promptly reported a bill embracing the comprehensive plan of
compromise which Mr. Clay proposed. Among the resolutions
offered, was the following: “Resolved, that as slavery does not exist
by law and is not likely to be introduced into any of the territory
acquired by the United States from the Republic of Mexico, it is
inexpedient for Congress to provide by law either for its introduction
into or exclusion from any part of the said territory; and that
appropriate territorial governments ought to be established by
Congress in all of the said territory, and assigned as the boundaries
of the proposed State of California, without the adoption of any
restriction or condition on the subject of slavery.” Mr. Jefferson
Davis of Mississippi, objected that the measure gave nothing to the
South in the settlement of the question; and he required the
extension of the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific Ocean as
the least that he would be willing to take, with the specific
recognition of the right to hold slaves in the territory below that line;
and that, before such territories are admitted into the Union as
States, slaves may be taken there from any of the United States at the
option of their owner.
Mr. Clay in reply, said: “Coming from a slave State, as I do, I owe it
to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to say that no
earthly power could induce me to vote for a specific measure for the
introduction of slavery where it had not before existed, either south
or north of that line.*** If the citizens of those territories choose to
establish slavery, and if they come here with constitutions
establishing slavery, I am for admitting them with such provisions in
their constitutions; but then it will be their own work, and not ours,
and their posterity will have to reproach them, and not us, for
forming constitutions allowing the institution of slavery to exist
among them.”
Mr. Seward of New York, proposed a renewal of the Wilmot
Proviso, in the following resolution: “Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, otherwise than by conviction for crime, shall ever be
allowed in either of said territories of Utah and New Mexico;” but his
resolution was rejected in the Senate by a vote of 23 yeas to 33 nays.
Following this, Mr. Calhoun had read for him in the Senate, by his
friend James M. Mason of Virginia, his last speech. It embodied the
points covered by the address to the people, prepared by him the
previous year; the probability of a dissolution of the Union, and
presenting a case to justify it. The tenor of the speech is shown by the
following extracts from it: “I have, Senators, believed from the first,
that the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by
some timely and effective measure, end in disunion. Entertaining
this opinion, I have, on all proper occasions, endeavored to call the
attention of each of the two great parties which divide the country to
adopt some measure to prevent so great a disaster, but without
success. The agitation has been permitted to proceed, with almost no
attempt to resist it, until it has reached a period when it can no
longer be disguised or denied that the Union is in danger. You have
had forced upon you the greatest and gravest question that can ever
come under your consideration: How can the Union be preserved?
*** Instead of being weaker, all the elements in favor of agitation are
stronger now than they were in 1835, when it first commenced, while
all the elements of influence on the part of the South are weaker.
Unless something decisive is done, I again ask what is to stop this
agitation, before the great and final object at which it aims—the
abolition of slavery in the States—is consummated? Is it, then, not
certain that if something decisive is not now done to arrest it, the
South will be forced to choose between abolition and secession?
Indeed as events are now moving, it will not require the South to
secede to dissolve the Union.*** If the agitation goes on, nothing will
be left to hold the States together except force.” He answered the
question, How can the Union be saved? with which his speech
opened, by suggesting: “To provide for the insertion of a provision in
the constitution, by an amendment, which will restore to the South
in substance the power she possessed of protecting herself, before
the equilibrium between the sections was destroyed by the action of
the government.” He did not state of what the amendment should
consist, but later on, it was ascertained from reliable sources that his
idea was a dual executive—one President from the free, and one from
the slave States, the consent of both of whom should be required to
all acts of Congress before they become laws. This speech of Mr.
Calhoun’s, is important as explaining many of his previous actions;
and as furnishing a guide to those who ten years afterwards
attempted to carry out practically the suggestions thrown out by him.
Mr. Clay’s compromise bill was rejected. It was evident that no
compromise of any kind whatever on the subject of slavery, under
any one of its aspects separately, much less under all put together,
could possibly be made. There was no spirit of concession
manifested. The numerous measures put together in Mr. Clay’s bill
were disconnected and separated. Each measure received a separate
and independent consideration, and with a result which showed the
injustice of the attempted conjunction; for no two of them were
passed by the same vote, even of the members of the committee
which had even unanimously reported favorably upon them as a
whole.
Mr. Calhoun died in the spring of 1850; before the separate bill for
the admission of California was taken up. His death took place at
Washington, he having reached the age of 68 years. A eulogy upon
him was delivered in the Senate by his colleague, Mr. Butler, of South
Carolina. Mr. Calhoun was the first great advocate of the doctrine of
secession. He was the author of the nullification doctrine, and an
advocate of the extreme doctrine of States Rights. He was an
eloquent speaker—a man of strong intellect. His speeches were plain,
strong, concise, sometimes impassioned, and always severe. Daniel
Webster said of him, that “he had the basis, the indispensable basis
of all high characters, and that was unspotted integrity, unimpeached
honor and character!”
In July of this year an event took place which threw a gloom over
the country. The President, General Taylor, contracted a fever from
exposure to the hot sun at a celebration of Independence Day, from
which he died four days afterwards. He was a man of irreproachable
private character, undoubted patriotism, and established reputation
for judgment and firmness. His brief career showed no deficiency of
political wisdom nor want of political training. His administration
was beset with difficulties, with momentous questions pending, and
he met the crisis with firmness and determination, resolved to
maintain the Federal Union at all hazards. His first and only annual
message, the leading points of which have been stated, evinces a
spirit to do what was right among all the States. His death was a
public calamity. No man could have been more devoted to the Union
nor more opposed to the slavery agitation; and his position as a
Southern man and a slaveholder—his military reputation, and his
election by a majority of the people as well as of the States, would
have given him a power in the settlement of the pending questions of
the day which no President without these qualifications could have
possessed.
In accordance with the Constitution, the office of President thus
devolved upon the Vice-President, Mr. Millard Fillmore, who was
duly inaugurated July 10, 1850. The new cabinet, with Daniel
Webster as Secretary of State, was duly appointed and confirmed by
the Senate.
The bill for the admission of California as a State in the Union, was
called up in the Senate and sought to be amended by extending the
Missouri Compromise line through it, to the Pacific Ocean, so as to
authorize slavery in the State below that line. The amendment was
introduced and pressed by Southern friends of the late Mr. Calhoun,
and made a test question. It was lost, and the bill passed by a two-
third vote; whereupon ten Southern Senators offered a written
protest, the concluding clause of which was: “We dissent from this
bill, and solemnly protest against its passage, because in sanctioning
measures so contrary to former precedents, to obvious policy, to the
spirit and intent of the constitution of the United States, for the
purpose of excluding the slaveholding States from the territory thus
to be erected into a State, this government in effect declares that the
exclusion of slavery from the territory of the United States is an
object so high and important as to justify a disregard not only of all
the principles of sound policy, but also of the constitution itself.
Against this conclusion we must now and for ever protest, as it is
destructive of the safety and liberties of those whose rights have been
committed to our care, fatal to the peace and equality of the States
which we represent, and must lead, if persisted in, to the dissolution
of that confederacy, in which the slaveholding States have never
sought more than equality, and in which they will not be content to
remain with less.” On objection being made, followed by debate, the
Senate refused to receive the protest, or permit it to be entered on
the Journal. The bill went to the House of Representatives, was
readily passed, and promptly approved by the President. Thus was
virtually accomplished the abrogation of the Missouri compromise
line; and the extension or non-extension of slavery was then made to
form a foundation for future political parties.
The year 1850 was prolific with disunion movements in the
Southern States. The Senators who had joined with Mr. Calhoun in
the address to the people, in 1849, united with their adherents in
establishing at Washington a newspaper entitled “The Southern
Press,” devoted to the agitation of the slavery question; to presenting
the advantages of disunion, and the organization of a confederacy of
Southern States to be called the “United States South.” Its constant
aim was to influence the South against the North, and advocated
concert of action by the States of the former section. It was aided in
its efforts by newspapers published in the South, more especially in
South Carolina and Mississippi. A disunion convention was actually
held, in Nashville, Tennessee, and invited the assembly of a Southern
Congress. Two States, South Carolina and Mississippi responded to
the appeal; passed laws to carry it into effect, and the former went so
far as to elect its quota of Representatives to the proposed new
Southern Congress. These occurrences are referred to as showing the
spirit that prevailed, and the extraordinary and unjustifiable means
used by the leaders to mislead and exasperate the people. The
assembling of a Southern “Congress” was a turning point in the
progress of disunion. Georgia refused to join; and her weight as a
great Southern State was sufficient to cause the failure of the scheme.
But the seeds of discord were sown, and had taken root, only to
spring up at a future time when circumstances should be more
favorable to the accomplishment of the object.
Although the Congress of the United States had in 1790 and again
in 1836 formally declared the policy of the government to be non-
interference with the States in respect to the matter of slavery within
the limits of the respective States, the subject continued to be
agitated in consequence of petitions to Congress to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia, which was under the exclusive control of
the federal government; and of movements throughout the United
States to limit, and finally abolish it. The subject first made its
appearance in national politics in 1840, when a presidential ticket
was nominated by a party then formed favoring the abolition of
slavery; it had a very slight following which was increased tenfold at
the election of 1844 when the same party again put a ticket in the
field with James G. Birney of Michigan, as its candidate for the
Presidency; who received 62,140 votes. The efforts of the leaders of
that faction were continued, and persisted in to such an extent, that
when in 1848 it nominated a ticket with Gerritt Smith for President,
against the Democratic candidate, Martin Van Buren, the former
received 296,232 votes. In the presidential contest of 1852 the
abolition party again nominated a ticket, with John P. Hale as its
candidate for President, and polled 157,926 votes. This large
following was increased from time to time, until uniting with a new
party then formed, called the Republican party, which latter adopted
a platform endorsing the views and sentiments of the abolitionists,
the great and decisive battle for the principles involved, was fought
in the ensuing presidential contest of 1856; when the candidate of
the Republican party, John C. Fremont, supported by the entire
abolition party, polled 1,341,812 votes. The first national platform of
the Abolition party, upon which it went into the contest of 1840,
favored the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and
Territories; the inter-state slave trade, and a general opposition to
slavery to the full extent of constitutional power.
Following the discussion of the subject of slavery, in the Senate
and House of Representatives, brought about by the presentation of
petitions and memorials, and the passage of the resolutions in 1836
rejecting such petitions, the question was again raised by the
presentation in the House, by Mr. Slade of Vermont, on the 20th
December 1837, of two memorials praying the abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia, and moving that they be referred to a select
committee. Great excitement prevailed in the chamber, and of the
many attempts by the Southern members an adjournment was had.
The next day a resolution was offered that thereafter all such
petitions and memorials touching the abolition of slavery should,
when presented, be laid on the table; which resolution was adopted
by a large vote. During the 24th Congress, the Senate pursued the
course of laying on the table the motion to receive all abolition
petitions; and both Houses during the 25th Congress continued the
same course of conduct; when finally on the 25th of January 1840,
the House adopted by a vote of 114 to 108, an amendment to the
rules, called the 21st Rule, which provided:—“that no petition,
memorial or resolution, or other paper, praying the abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia, or any state or territory, or the
slave-trade between the States or territories of the United States, in
which it now exists, shall be received by this House, or entertained in
any way whatever.” This rule was afterwards, on the 3d of December,
1844, rescinded by the House, on motion of Mr. J. Quincy Adams, by
a vote of 108 to 80; and a motion to re-instate it, on the 1st of
December 1845, was rejected by a vote of 84 to 121. Within five years
afterwards—on the 17th September 1850,—the Congress of the
United States enacted a law, which was approved by the President,
abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.
On the 25th of February, 1850, there was presented in the House
of Representatives, two petitions from citizens of Pennsylvania and
Delaware, setting forth that slavery, and the constitution which
permits it, violates the Divine law; is inconsistent with republican
principles; that its existence has brought evil upon the country; and
that no union can exist with States which tolerate that institution;
and asking that some plan be devised for the immediate, peaceful
dissolution of the Union. The House refused to receive and consider
the petitions; as did also the Senate when the same petitions were
presented the same month.
The presidential election of 1852 was the last campaign in which
the Whig party appeared in National politics. It nominated a ticket
with General Winfield Scott as its candidate for President. His
opponent on the Democratic ticket was General Franklin Pierce. A
third ticket was placed in the field by the Abolition party, with John
P. Hale as its candidate for President. The platform and declaration
of principles of the Whig party was in substance a ratification and
endorsement of the several measures embraced in Mr. Clay’s
compromise resolutions of the previous session of Congress, before
referred to; and the policy of a revenue for the economical
administration of the government, to be derived mainly from duties
on imports, and by these means to afford protection to American
industry. The main plank of the platform of the Abolition party (or
Independent Democrats, as they were called) was for the non-
extension and gradual extinction of slavery. The Democratic party
equally adhered to the compromise measure. The election resulted in
the choice of Franklin Pierce, by a popular vote of 1,601,474, and 254
electoral votes, against a popular aggregate vote of 1,542,403 (of
which the abolitionists polled 157,926) and 42 electoral votes, for the
Whig and Abolition candidates. Mr. Pierce was duly inaugurated as
President, March 4, 1853.
The first political parties in the United States, from the
establishment of the federal government and for many years
afterwards, were denominated Federalists and Democrats, or
Democratic-Republicans. The former was an anti-alien party. The
latter was made up to a large extent of naturalized foreigners;
refugees from England, Ireland and Scotland, driven from home for
hostility to the government or for attachment to France. Naturally,
aliens sought alliance with the Democratic party, which favored the
war against Great Britain. The early party contests were based on the
naturalization laws; the first of which, approved March 26, 1790,
required only two years’ residence in this country; a few years
afterwards the time was extended to five years; and in 1798 the
Federalists taking advantage of the war fever against France, and
then being in power, extended the time to fourteen years. (See Alien
and Sedition Laws of 1798). Jefferson’s election and Democratic
victory of 1800, brought the period back to five years in 1802, and
reinforced the Democratic party. The city of New York, especially,
from time to time became filled with foreigners; thus naturalized;
brought into the Democratic ranks; and crowded out native
Federalists from control of the city government, and to meet this
condition of affairs, the first attempt at a Native American
organization was made. Beginning in 1835; ending in failure in
election of Mayor in 1837, it was revived in April, 1844, when the
Native American organization carried New York city for its
Mayoralty candidate by a good majority. The success of the
movement there, caused it to spread to New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, it was desperately opposed by the
Democratic, Irish and Roman Catholic element, and so furiously,
that it resulted in riots, in which two Romish Churches were burned
and destroyed. The adherents of the American organization were not
confined to Federalists or Whigs, but largely of native Democrats;
and the Whigs openly voted with Democratic Natives in order to
secure their vote for Henry Clay for the Presidency; but when in
November, 1844, New York and Philadelphia both gave Native
majorities, and so sapped the Whig vote, that both places gave
majorities for the Democratic Presidential electors, the Whigs drew
off. In 1845, at the April election in New York, the natives were
defeated, and the new party disappeared there. As a result of the
autumn election of 1844, the 29th Congress, which organized in
December, 1845, had six Native Representatives; four from New
York and two from Pennsylvania. In the 30th Congress, Pennsylvania
had one. Thereafter for some years, with the exception of a small
vote in Pennsylvania and New York, Nativism disappeared. An able
writer of that day—Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, of Virginia—published
under the nom-de-plume of “Madison” several letters in vindication
of the American party (revived in 1852,) in which he said: “The vital
principle of the American party is Americanism—developing itself in
a deep-rooted attachment to our own country—its constitution, its
union, and its laws—to American men, and American measures, and
American interests—or, in other words, a fervent patriotism—which,
rejecting the transcendental philanthropy of abolitionists, and that
kindred batch of wild enthusiasts, who would seek to embroil us with
foreign countries, in righting the wrongs of Ireland, or Hungary, or
Cuba—would guard with vestal vigilance American institutions and
American interests against the baneful effects of foreign influence.”
About 1852, when the question of slavery in the territories, and its
extension or its abolition in the States, was agitated and causing
sectional differences in the country, many Whigs and Democrats
forsook their parties, and took sides on the questions of the day. This
was aggravated by the large number of alien naturalized citizens
constantly added to the ranks of voters, who took sides with the
Democrats and against the Whigs. Nativism then re-appeared, but in
a new form—that of a secret fraternity. Its real name and objects
were not revealed—even to its members, until they reached a high
degree in the order; and the answer of members on being questioned
on these subjects was, “I don’t know”—which gave it the popular
name, by which it is yet known, of “Know-nothing.” Its moving
causes were the growing power and designs of the Roman Catholic
Church in America; the sudden influx of aliens; and the greed and
incapacity of naturalized citizens for office. Its cardinal principle
was: “Americans must rule America”; and its countersign was the
order of General Washington on a critical occasion during the war:
“Put none but Americans on guard to-night.” Its early nominations
were not made public, but were made by select committees and
conventions of delegates. At first these nominations were confined to
selections of the best Whig or best Democrat on the respective
tickets; and the choice not being made known, but quietly voted for
by all the members of the order, the effect was only visible after
election, and threw all calculation into chaos. For a while it was really
the arbiter of elections.
On February 8, 1853, a bill passed the House of Representatives
providing a territorial government for Nebraska, embracing all of
what is now Kansas and Nebraska. It was silent on the subject of the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The bill was tabled in the
Senate; to be revived at the following session. In the Senate it was
amended, on motion of Mr. Douglas, to read: “That so much of the
8th section of an act approved March 6, 1820, (the Missouri
compromise) *** which, being inconsistent with the principles of
non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and
Territories, as recognized by the legislature of 1850, commonly called
the Compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void;
it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery
into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave
the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the
United States.” It was further amended, on motion of Senator
Clayton, to prohibit “alien suffrage.” In the House this amendment
was not agreed to; and the bill finally passed without it, on the 25th
May, 1854.
So far as Nebraska was concerned, no excitement of any kind
marked the initiation of her territorial existence. The persons who
emigrated there seemed to regard the pursuits of business as of more
interest than the discussion of slavery. Kansas was less fortunate.
Her territory became at once the battle-field of a fierce political
conflict between the advocates of slavery, and the free soil men from
the North who went there to resist the establishment of that
institution in the territory. Differences arose between the Legislature
and the Governor, brought about by antagonisms between the Pro-
slavery party and the Free State party; and the condition of affairs in
Kansas assumed so frightful a mien in January, 1856, that the
President sent a special message to Congress on the subject, January
24, 1856; followed by a Proclamation, February 11, 1856, “warning all
unlawful combinations (in the territory) to retire peaceably to their
respective abodes, or he would use the power of the local militia, and
the available forces of the United States to disperse them.”
Several applications were made to Congress for several successive
years, for the admission of Kansas as a state in the Union; upon the
basis of three separate and distinct constitutions, all differing as to
the main questions at issue between the contending factions. The
name of Kansas was for some years synonymous with all that is
lawless and anarchical. Elections became mere farces, and the
officers thus fraudulently placed in power, used their authority only
for their own or their party’s interest. The party opposed to slavery at
length triumphed; a constitution excluding slavery was adopted in
1859, and Kansas was admitted into the Union January 29, 1861.
Under the fugitive slave law, which was passed by Congress at the
session of 1850, as one of the Compromise measures, introduced by
Mr. Clay, a long and exciting litigation occurred to test the validity
and constitutionality of the act, and the several laws on which it
depended. The suit was instituted by Dred Scott, a negro slave, in the
Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Missouri, in
April Term, 1854, against John F. A. Sanford, his alleged owner, for
trespass vi et armis, in holding the plaintiff and his wife and
daughters in slavery in said District of Missouri, where by law slavery
was prohibited; they having been previously lawfully held in slavery
by a former owner—Dr. Emerson—in the State of Illinois, from
whence they were taken by him to Missouri, and sold to the
defendant, Sanford. The case went up on appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States, and was clearly and elaborately argued.
The majority opinion, delivered by Chief Justice Taney, as also the
dissenting opinions, are reported in full in Howard’s U. S. Supreme
Court Reports, Volume 19, page 393. In respect to the territories the
Constitution grants to Congress the power “to make all needful rules
and regulations concerning the territory and other property
belonging to the United States.” The Court was of opinion that the
clause of the Constitution applies only to the territory within the
original States at the time the Constitution was adopted, and that it
did not apply to future territory acquired by treaty or conquest from
foreign nations. They were also of opinion that the power of Congress
over such future territorial acquisitions was not unlimited, that the
citizens of the States migrating to a territory were not to be regarded
as colonists, subject to absolute power in Congress, but as citizens of
the United States, with all the rights of citizenship guarantied by the
Constitution, and that no legislation was constitutional which
attempted to deprive a citizen of his property on his becoming a
resident of a territory. This question in the case arose under the act
of Congress prohibiting slavery in the territory of upper Louisiana,
(acquired from France, afterwards the State), and of which the
territory of Missouri was formed. Any obscurity as to what
constitutes citizenship, will be removed by attending to the
distinction between local rights of citizenship of the United States
according to the Constitution. Citizenship at large in the sense of the
Constitution can be conferred on a foreigner only by the
naturalization laws of Congress. But each State, in the exercise of its
local and reserved sovereignty, may place foreigners or other persons
on a footing with its own citizens, as to political rights and privileges
to be enjoyed within its own dominion. But State regulations of this
character do not make the persons on whom such rights are
conferred citizens of the United States or entitle them to the
privileges and immunities of citizens in another State. See 5
Wheaton, (U. S. Supreme Court Reports), page 49.
The Court said in The Dred Scott case, above referred to, that:
—“The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed
in the Constitution. The right to traffic in it like the ordinary article
of merchandise and property was guarantied to the citizens of the
United States, in every State that might desire it for twenty years,
and the government in express terms is pledged to protect it in all
future time if the slave escapes from his owner. This is done in plain
words—too plain to be misunderstood, and no word can be found in
the Constitution which gives Congress a greater power over slave
property, or which entitles property of that kind to less protection
than the property of any other description. The only power conferred
is the power coupled with the duty of guarding and protecting the
owner in his rights. Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of
the Court that the Act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from
holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the
United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted
by the Constitution and is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott
himself, nor any of his family were made free by being carried into
this territory; even if they had been carried there by the owner with
the intention of becoming a permanent resident.” The abolition of
slavery by the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United
States ratified and adopted December 18, 1865, has put an end to
these discussions formerly so numerous.
As early as 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska controversy on the
territorial government bill, resulted in a division of the Whig party in
the North. Those not sufficiently opposed to slavery to enter the new
Republican party, then in its incipiency, allied themselves with the
Know-Nothing order, which now accepting the name of American
party established a separate and independent political existence. The
party had no hold in the West; it was entirely Middle State at this
time, and polled a large vote in Massachusetts, Delaware and New
York. In the State elections of 1855 the American party made a stride
Southward. In 1855, the absence of naturalized citizens was universal
in the South, and even so late as 1881 the proportion of foreign born
population in the Southern States, with the exception of Florida,
Louisiana, and Texas was under two per cent. At the early date—1855
—the nativist feeling among the Whigs of that section, made it easy
to transfer them to the American party, which thus secured in both
the Eastern and Southern States, the election of Governor and
Legislature in the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New York, California and Kentucky; and also
elected part of its State ticket in Maryland, and Texas; and only lost
the States of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by
small majorities against it.
The order began preparations for a campaign as a National party,
in 1856. It aimed to introduce opposition to aliens and Roman
Catholicism as a national question. On the 21st of February, 1856,
the National Council held a session at Philadelphia, and proceeded to
formulate a declaration of principles, and make a platform, which
were as follows:
“An humble acknowledgement to the Supreme Being, for his
protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their successful
Revolutionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their
descendants, in the preservation of the liberties, the independence,
and the union of these States.
2d. The perpetuation of the Federal Union, as the palladium of our
civil and religious liberties, and the only sure Bulwark of American
independence.
3d. Americans must rule America, and to this end, native-born
citizens should be selected for all state, federal, and municipal offices
or government employment, in preference to all others; nevertheless,
4th. Persons born of American parents residing temporarily
abroad, should be entitled to all the rights of native-born citizens;
but,
5th. No person shall be selected for political station (whether of
native or foreign birth), who recognizes any allegiance or obligation,
of any description, to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, or who
refuses to recognize the Federal and State constitutions (each within
its sphere) as paramount to all other laws, as rules of political action.
6th. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved
rights of the several States, and the cultivation of harmony and
fraternal good will, between the citizens of the several States, and to
this end, non-interference by congress with questions appertaining
solely to the individual States, and non-intervention by each State
with the affairs of any other State.
7th. The recognition of the right of the native-born and naturalized
citizens of the United States, permanently residing in any territory
thereof, to frame their constitution and laws, and to regulate their
domestic and social affairs in their own mode, subject only to the
provisions of the Federal Constitution, with the privilege of
admission into the Union, whenever they have the requisite
population for one representative in Congress.—Provided always,
that none but those who are citizens of the United States, under the
Constitution and laws thereof, and who have a fixed residence in any
such territory, ought to participate in the formation of the
Constitution, or in the enactment of laws for said Territory or State.
8th. An enforcement of the principle that no State or Territory
ought to admit others than citizens of the United States to the right
of suffrage, or of holding political office.
9th. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued
residence of twenty-one years, of all not hereinbefore provided for,
an indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding all
paupers, and persons convicted of crime, from landing upon our
shores; but no interference with the vested rights of foreigners.
10th. Opposition to any union between Church and State; no
interference with religious faith, or worship, and no test oaths for
office.
11th. Free and thorough investigation into any and all alleged
abuses of public functionaries, and a strict economy in public
expenditures.
12th. The maintenance and enforcement of all laws
constitutionally enacted, until said laws shall be repealed, or shall be
declared null and void by competent judicial authority.
The American Ritual, or Constitution, rules, regulations, and
ordinances of the Order were as follows:—
AMERICAN RITUAL.
Constitution of the National Council of the United States of North
America.
Art. 1st. This organization shall be known by the name and title of
The National Council of the United States of North America,
and its jurisdiction and power shall extend to all the states, districts,
and territories of the United States of North America.
Art. 2d. The object of this organization shall be to protect every
American citizen in the legal and proper exercise of all his civil and
religious rights and privileges; to resist the insidious policy of the
Church of Rome, and all other foreign influence against our
republican institutions in all lawful ways; to place in all offices of
honor, trust, or profit, in the gift of the people, or by appointment,
none but native-born Protestant citizens, and to protect, preserve,
and uphold the union of these states and the constitution of the
same.
Art. 3d. Sec. 1.—A person to become a member of any subordinate
council must be twenty-one years of age; he must believe in the
existence of a Supreme Being as the Creator and preserver of the
universe. He must be a native-born citizen; a Protestant, either born
of Protestant parents, or reared under Protestant influence; and not
united in marriage with a Roman Catholic; provided, nevertheless,
that in this last respect, the state, district, or territorial councils shall
be authorized to so construct their respective constitutions as shall
best promote the interests of the American cause in their several
jurisdictions; and provided, moreover, that no member who may
have a Roman Catholic wife shall be eligible to office in this order;
and provided, further, should any state, district, or territorial council
prefer the words “Roman Catholic” as a disqualification to
membership, in place of “Protestant” as a qualification, they may so
consider this constitution and govern their action accordingly.
Sec. 2.—There shall be an interval of three weeks between the
conferring of the first and second degrees; and of three months
between the conferring of the second and third degrees—provided,
that this restriction shall not apply to those who may have received
the second degree previous to the first day of December next; and
provided, further, that the presidents of state, district, and territorial
councils may grant dispensations for initiating in all the degrees,
officers of new councils.
Sec. 3.—The national council shall hold its annual meetings on the
first Tuesday in the month of June, at such place as may be
designated by the national council at the previous annual meeting,
and it may adjourn from time to time. Special meetings may be
called by the President, on the written request of five delegations
representing five state councils; provided, that sixty days’ notice shall
be given to the state councils previous to said meeting.
Sec. 4.—The national council shall be composed of seven delegates
from each state, to be chosen by the state councils; and each district
or territory where a district or territorial council shall exist, shall be
entitled to send two delegates, to be chosen from said council—
provided that in the nomination of candidates for President and
Vice-President of the United States, and each state shall be entitled
to cast the same number of votes as they shall have members in both
houses of Congress. In all sessions of the national council, thirty-two
delegates, representing thirteen states, territories, or districts, shall
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
Sec. 5.—The national council shall be vested with the following
powers and privileges:
It shall be the head of the organization for the United States of
North America, and shall fix and establish all signs, grips, pass-
words, and such other secret work, as may seem to it necessary.
It shall have the power to decide all matters appertaining to
national politics.
It shall have the power to exact from the state councils, quarterly
or annual statements as to the number of members under their
jurisdictions, and in relation to all other matters necessary for its
information.
It shall have the power to form state, territorial, or district
councils, and to grant dispensations for the formation of such bodies,
when five subordinate councils shall have been put in operation in
any state, territory, or district, and application made.
It shall have the power to determine upon a mode of punishment
in case of any dereliction of duty on the part of its members or
officers.
It shall have the power to adopt cabalistic characters for the
purpose of writing or telegraphing. Said characters to be
communicated to the presidents of the state councils, and by them to
the presidents of the subordinate councils.
It shall have the power to adopt any and every measure it may
deem necessary to secure the success of the organization; provided
that nothing shall be done by the said national council in violation of
the constitution; and provided further, that in all political matters,
its members may be instructed by the state councils, and if so
instructed, shall carry out such instructions of the state councils
which they represent until overruled by a majority of the national
council.
Art. 4. The President shall always preside over the national council
when present, and in his absence the Vice-President shall preside,
and in the absence of both the national council shall appoint a
president pro tempore; and the presiding officers may at all times
call a member to the chair, but such appointment shall not extend
beyond one sitting of the national council.
Art. 5. Sec. 1.—The officers of the National Council shall be a
President, Vice-President, Chaplain, Corresponding Secretary,
Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and two Sentinels, with such other
officers as the national council may see fit to appoint from time to
time; and the secretaries and sentinels may receive such
compensation as the national council shall determine.
Sec. 2.—The duties of the several officers created by this
constitution shall be such as the work of this organization prescribes.
Art. 6. Sec. 1.—All officers provided for by this constitution, except
the sentinels, shall be elected annually by ballot. The president may
appoint sentinels from time to time.
Sec. 2.—A majority of all the votes cast shall be requisite to an
election for an office.
Sec. 3.—All officers and delegates of this council, and of all state,
district, territorial, and subordinate councils, must be invested with
all the degrees of this order.
Sec. 4.—All vacancies in the elective offices shall be filled by a vote
of the national council, and only for the unexpired term of the said
vacancy.